Tomorrow is the big day. December first—a day that no fish could ever forget. We spend all year preparing for this day: working out, eating just right, dodging all the sharks, avoiding being caught. We did all of this just so that we can have this one day to shine. The day we are able to go onto land and attempt to blend in with humans. They aren’t as smart as they look. Thousands of fish are able to appear and disappear in one day without any human questioning it. It all started when humans began to pollute the ocean so bad that King Stephen the Maltese Ray had to go on land and do something about it. He said he went on land and yelled at every single human being about their behaviors. No one really believed this is actually how it occurred. Nonetheless when he returned alive with good news, it was ruled by the species committee that every year we would honor his name on this day and go on land. This tradition has lasted over thousands of years without us being caught, and tomorrow is another day that this tradition will go down.

I couldn’t sleep from the excitement flowing through my gills. This was my first year of being able to participate. I was finally four and old enough to venture onto land. Everyone around me kept flaring their gill plates at me to try and tell me to stop and just rest, but I couldn’t do that. I don’t know how they expected me to be able to just rest with a day like tomorrow ahead of me.

Waiting for the clock to hit four AM, I did everything to distract myself. I was beginning to get nervous. I have heard the horror stories of first year fish almost getting caught. I’m not completely sure if these stories were true or just meant to scare us. Either way, the stories did just that—scare me. What if I was the one to get caught? I would forever be a disappointment to the whole community.

Being caught up in my own doubts, I didn’t realize I was surrounded by a shoal rushing to the surface. Hurrying to catch up, I pushed all negative thoughts to the back of my head. I was following everyone else’s lead. Being it was my first time, I didn’t know what to expect. How was I going to blend in with humans when I can’t even blend in with fish?

The moment I stepped onto land I transformed. I am not quite sure what I expected to happen, or how I expected it to happen. However, the very second my fin touched land I was human. I had legs, arms, a nose, the whole package. I could even speak! I met up with the other fish I was going to adventure with.

We had the brilliant idea of visiting an amusement park for our day on land. On our way there, we stopped and talked to some humans to see what they were doing that day. They mentioned a big storm coming later that night. When we left the humans, my group said we would have to cut our trip short to ensure that we made it back to sea safety. They began to send signals to all the other groups, so they would know the bad news.

I was devastated. How could this be happening? It was my first time celebrating King Stephen’s day, and it was being canceled. As we began our truck back to sea, I began to feel my world crashing down. For four years of my life, I prepared for this moment. Now that it was here, it was being cut short. I would have to wait a whole year for a moment like this again. And that was only if I didn’t get caught by a net or ate by a shark or something.

Realizing that this was my first time celebrating, an older fish, Sheldon, slowed down and tried to comfort me. He told me how I always had the chance to do it next year and that it would be bigger and better than this year ever could be. I tried to explain my thoughts of how I was afraid I wouldn’t make it to next year or somehow wouldn’t have the opportunity. This was supposed to be the best day of the year for crying out loud.

Sheldon’s face turned to a stern one, and he told me to follow him. As he began walking away from the crowd, I got scared. I knew that leaving a school of fish was punishable with death. When I questioned him, he told me to not worry. I followed him going against my instinct. He led me into a store. There were these tanks of fish covering all of the walls. Sheldon leaned real close to me and told me I had the option of living here, on land, forever. He would go back to sea, say I ran off and that he tried to find me to no avail. That way he would not get killed, and I would get to experience King Stephen’s day every day.

I hugged him real tight and thanked him for this opportunity. He promised to come back and visit me next year on King Stephen’s day. He then lifted me up and put me into the water returning me to fish form. I watched him walk away with the promise of returning next year. I wasn’t so sure about living in this tank, but I was willing to try.